I was laying in the highway. All I smelled was smoke and antifreeze. I had six or  seven drinks. We went to a few more. I was tired from working all day. My face  was hurting. I didn't know what happened. Somebody saying the paramedics  were coming. I felt like I was okay to drive a woman crying out, nodding down  once I was in a sleepy state, hauled into an ambulance, in and out of  consciousness, rolled down the window, get some fresh air blowing in on me.  Didn't know what was happening. Felt like I was in a dream. I was 21 more  intoxicated. Heard another voice crossing the center line of the highway, a  glimpse of my family, chaos, confusion. What's going on? She said, these  officers need to take blood from you. The guilt and the anguish and the hurt that  came upon my shoulders just was overwhelming. I've never felt anything like it  in my life, and I knew that I'd really done it. I'd really let myself become so far out of control that even I couldn't fix it now. And I remember as they as they  released me from the hospital and took me into custody, getting down on my  knees and crying out to God. And I said, God, please help me. Please help me.  What have I done? And I was I was feeling so bad about the situation, and so  bad about what had happened and being responsible for what I was responsible for, that I just didn't even really want to live. I didn't want to live no more. I didn't  want to keep, keep going forward. But when I cried out to God, he he came to  me in my time of need. I think some people God reaches through subtlety, and I  think he's able to touch the lives of people in different ways. In my instance, it  was it was a iron fist and hard love. He knew that I had to reach my bottom  before I'd open my eyes. I was so hard headed I just didn't want to accept him.  And when I cried out to him, it was a plea of, just come help me. And Lord, if  you'll help me through this, I'll, you know, I'll surrender. And when I surrendered  my life to him, it just changed. Everything changed. Everything changed. You  know, through all that happened, I lost my business, I lost my family, I lost a wife  that I was newly wed to I lost everything that this life had had given me and I  had earned in this life and on my own, on my own will, But Jesus had also given  me freedom from sin and freedom from the life that I was living through his  forgiveness and His love, His grace, and if it hadn't been for His mercy and  grace in My life, I'd either be dead right now or in prison somewhere, rotting  away. Alcohol is not even a part of my life anymore. Doesn't play any role in my  life whatsoever. In fact, I was encountered with this situation shortly after my  accident and accepting Christ. I knew that Christ was real to me. I knew that he  was real when I was confronted with the single most thing that I was weak to in  my life, and he gave me power over. That not in a strength that I had ever  known, but a strength that was new to me, and I just knew it was it was God. I  knew it was God. I knew he was real, and I knew he had the power over sin, and it was evident in my life. My name is James Caldemeyer, and I'm second. 



آخر تعديل: الاثنين، 30 يونيو 2025، 10:30 ص